WIXLIB

NUTRITION INEMERGENCIESSaving lives today,strengtheningsystems fortomorrow1

She’s been walking for days. Her body achesand her stomach is empty when she finallyreaches the refugee camp. With her baby slunglow on her back, she searches for a safe placeto rest and feed him. The ground is litteredwith debris and everywhere she looks thereare people.The task before her seems enormous:find food, safe water and a clean place to restand breastfeed her baby.for every child, nutrition2

NUTRITION ATA BREAKING POINTThe world is facing an unprecedented numberof humanitarian situations today. Protractedconflicts, natural disasters and devastating foodinsecurity grip communities around the world, threateninglives and livelihoods – and women and children bear thegreatest consequences. By the end of 2016, more thanhalf a billion children were living in countries affected byconflict, disasters and epidemics. Humanitarian crisesare often characterized by limited access to safe foodand clean water as well as disruptions to basic health andnutrition services – a lethal cocktail of undernutrition.To protect children’s right to food and nutrition inemergencies, UNICEF and its partners identify and treatchildren suffering from acute malnutrition, provide fortifiedfoods and supplements to prevent vitamin and nutrientdeficiencies, protect and promote breastfeeding, andsupport families in providing safe and nutritious food foryoung children. In the past year alone, UNICEF respondedto 344 humanitarian situations of varying scale in 108countries – the largest number of situations and countriesin more than a decade.To say this work is urgent is an understatement.Malnutrition is deadly: a child suffering from severe acutemalnutrition is nine times more likely to die than a wellnourished child. But the dire consequences of malnutritionare not always visible from the outside. Poor dietsalso inflict devastating damage on the inside, stuntingchildren’s growth, impairing their brain developmentand leaving them susceptible to disease. UNICEF’snutrition programmes aim to foster children’s growth anddevelopment over the long term, ensuring they not onlysurvive but go on to live healthy and productive lives.During humanitarian crises, UNICEF’s foremost prioritiesare to prevent death from starvation and disease andto reduce malnutrition. This work is guided by the CoreCommitments to Children in Humanitarian Action – aglobal framework for fulfilling the rights of childrenaffected by humanitarian crisis. In a nutrition emergency,every second counts: a timely, coordinated responsehas the power to safeguard children’s minds, bodies andfutures.3

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Laying the groundwork foremergency responsePlanning and emergency preparedness are the foundations ofeffective humanitarian action.Preventing malnutrition before it starts – UNICEFworks to build the foundations of good nutrition –including access to nutritious foods during pregnancy andearly childhood, access to basic services and a safe andhealthy environment – to keep children strong and resilientin the face of disease and disaster.Identifying and managing risks – UNICEF helpscountries anticipate threats to good nutrition and developrisk-informed systems and programmes that are flexibleand poised to adapt when emergency strikes.Directing a coordinated response – Within countries,UNICEF is mandated as the lead agency for nutrition,heading emergency coordination efforts in more than 60countries. UNICEF also leads the Global Nutrition Cluster— a body tasked with ensuring a timely, well-coordinatedand effective response where the scale of emergency isso large that no single agency or national authority canaddress it alone.Strengthening systems and strategies – UNICEF helpsgovernments plan for emergencies by putting the rightpolicies, programmes and strategies in place ahead oftime – and securing the human resources needed to scaleup emergency response when needed.Tracking nutrition information – UNICEF supportscountries in monitoring and collecting national data onmalnutrition that can help them make critical decisionsbefore, during and after a crisis.5

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Delivering urgent treatmentand care in crisisWhen disaster strikes, UNICEF is on the ground delivering emergency nutrition tothe children and families who need it most.Providing leadership under pressure – UNICEF workswith governments to conduct rapid nutrition assessmentsto identify gaps and vulnerabilities and to coordinate a planof action among multiple partners.Working to keep good nutrition inside the body –UNICEF improves access to clean water and adequatesanitation during emergencies to prevent diarrhoealdiseases, which can deplete children’s nutrient stores andleave them vulnerable to malnutrition.Preventing hidden hunger with vitamins andessential nutrients – UNICEF provides vitaminsupplementation and fortified foods to womenand children – such as vitamin A, iodized salt andmicronutrient powders – to prevent nutrient deficienciesand other forms of malnutrition. Supplementation boostschildren’s immunity and can even save lives: for example,two-doses of vitamin A can reduce child mortality by 1224 percent.Managing life-saving treatment and care – Whenprevention fails, UNICEF delivers urgent, life-savingtreatment and care for children suffering from severeacute malnutrition. In the past year alone, UNICEF treated2.4 million children with severe acute malnutrition inhumanitarian situations.Protecting and supporting breastfeeding – UNICEFprovides counselling to mothers and caregivers andestablishes safe spaces for feeding children in times ofcrisis. In 2016, more than 6.3 million caregivers receivedsuch counselling with UNICEF support. Where infantformula is required, UNICEF provides monitoring andoversight to ensure it is distributed ethically.7

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Leading the way backfrom disasterUNICEF supports countries as they rebuild and recover after crisis.Monitoring and surveillance – UNICEF tracks thenutrition situation during emergencies and advisescountries on the way forward as they transition out ofcrisis and improve future disaster risk reduction efforts.Advocating for change – As contexts shift, UNICEFhelps countries adapt emergency nutrition programmesinto effective long-term strategies. For example,UNICEF advocates for the treatment of severe acutemalnutrition to be funded by domestic budgets andintegrated into routine health services for children.Fostering resilience – UNICEF supports countries inbuilding and strengthening polices and systems to helpcommunities anticipate, withstand, and bounce back fromshocks and stressors.UNICEF collaborates across sectors at every stage of the process – frompreparedness, to response, to recovery – in recognition of the multipledeterminants of malnutrition in emergencies. Leveraging its strength asan agency with expertise across multiple sectors, UNICEF’s strategiesand delivery platforms combine nutrition, health, water, sanitation andhygiene interventions to guarantee a rapid and holistic response.9

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All hands on deck:An integrated chain of responseTo be effective, the national responseto nutrition emergencies needs tobe based on data and grounded inevidence about what works. It needsto be coordinated. It needs adequatehuman and financial resources.And it needs standards to ensurethat services reach and impact thechildren and families who need itmost.Countries in the depths of crisiscannot do this work alone. Theyneed the support of global andregional actors – a chain of responsefrom global to country level – toguarantee that standards aretranslated into actions and results thatuphold children’s rights. UNICEF’sregional and headquarters officesprovide this critical support andoversight to the urgent work takingplace on the ground.UNICEF’s regional office takes onthe role of:UNICEF’s global headquartersprovides the value of:Mobilizer – gathering resources,mobilizing surge capacity anddeploying staff to fill gaps and supporthumanitarian response.Technical expert – gatheringevidence, developing normsand standards for emergencypreparedness and response andcoordinating a global technicaladvisory body to tackle new andemerging issues;Convenor – uniting partners,engaging with regional bodies andcoordinating regional strategies.Knowledge broker – documentingbest practices and lessons learnedand ensuring new knowledge informsthe emergency response in othercountries in the region.11Quality assurer – forging a clearpathway to results and ensuringthe latest technical guidance isimplemented in times of crisis;Data custodian – equippingcolleagues on the ground with thelatest data, and monitoring andtracking the nutrition situationlonger-term.

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SNAPSHOTS OFEMERGENCY NUTRITIONIN MOTION13

Bachuy Riak, 7, stands next to his motherAngelina Nyanin, 25, holding her niece, NyalelGatcauk, 2, who suffers from malnutrition,during a Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM)mission in Thonyor, Leer county, South Sudan. UNICEF/UN055446/Modola14

Partnering to save lives in the mostfragile communities in South Sudanand support for children with severe acutemalnutrition, UNICEF worked with WPFto develop the South Sudan’s first-evernational community-based care guidelinesfor children with acute malnutrition. Theguidelines will accelerate care for thechildren most in need by allowing them betreated right within their own homes andcommunities.The protracted crisis in South Sudanhas left children facing immediate risksof violence, displacement, hunger andlife-threatening disease. In 2016, itsthird year of emergency response, UNICEFand the World Food Programme (WFP)provided life-saving services through 19integrated ‘rapid response mechanism’missions, delivering food rations andservices to prevent and treat acutemalnutrition. First launched in 2014, thesemissions have been pivotal to ensuringthat children in remote communitiescut off from services have a chance atsurvival. As part of the missions, UNICEFand WFP screened more than 61,000children under 5 and more than 15,000pregnant and lactating women for acutemalnutrition and referred those in need forlifesaving treatment and care. Nationwide,in partnership with 47 non-governmentalorganizations, UNICEF treated more than2018,000 children under 5 for severeacute malnutrition across the country,and more than 86 per cent of thesechildren recovered. To strengthen careUNICEF and its partners worked to trainhealth workers to better support infantand young child feeding during crisis.With UNICEF’s technical support, morethan 2,900 staff from NGOs and stateministries of health were trained to supportmothers in crisis. And with this improvedcapacity, more than 735,000 pregnantwomen and mothers with young childrenwere reached with individual counsellingand support, while a further 650,000men and women benefitted from groupcounselling. This counselling providedcritical skills to improve breastfeedingpractices and prevent malnutrition.15

Porters and a local health official carry UNICEFprovided vaccines on difficult terrains on theway to a measles, rubella and polio vaccinationcampaign to be conducted at Barpak VillageDevelopment Committee (VDC) health post inGorkha District, the epicentre of the April 25earthquake. UNICEF/UNI199142/Panday16